FAQ

Frequently
Asked Questions

General Questions:

What is it? The Open Course Library is a collection of shareable,
course materials, including syllabi, course activities, readings, and
assessments designed by teams of college faculty, instructional designers,
librarians, and other experts. Some of our materials (also called open
educational resources) are paired with low cost textbooks ($30 or less), but
most of them are completely free.

Who is it created for? OCL materials are created by faculty from Washington State for use
in their instruction, but the materials are openly licensed so they can be used and modified by other faculty at other colleges, or anyone else for that matter.

So what? According to the College Board, the average student should budget $1,168 for
course materials during the 2011-2012 school year. The Open Course Library
eliminates expensive textbooks and presents faculty with high quality, adaptable
course materials. The Student PIRGs did a preliminary cost analysis and found that faculty
using the Open Course Library will save students at least $1.26 million in the
2011-12 academic year. That's more than the cost of building the courses, and
the savings continues to grow!

Is that all? Nope. The Open Course Library may also increase course
completion rates by providing students with high quality, affordable educational
materials. A study of completion rates is in progress.

Is it designed to replace faculty or face-to-face instruction? No,
the Open Course Library does not replace faculty or force them to teach online.

How was it created? Faculty course designers were selected through a
competitive bid process. They worked with instructional designers, librarians,
and other support staff to create the courses. Before creating new content,
faculty searched for exiting, high quality open educational resources, or OER.
They then filled in the gaps with their own course materials.

How do faculty adopt a course? All curriculum developed for the Open
Course Library is free, digital, and shareable. We invite faculty everywhere to
explore, copy, customize, translate and adopt any and all course materials. We
only ask that you give us credit somewhere in your course. Here’s an example:
“[Portions of] or [This] course adapted from the Open Course Library of the
Washington State Colleges. More information at http://opencourselibrary.org.” We also encourage you to use Creative Commons to
openly license your course materials and share it with others.

Are there any costs? Some courses currently require the purchase of a
low-cost textbook. If an OCL course requires the purchase of a textbook or other
resource, the cost may not exceed $30 per student. All other materials are free
and there is no cost to adopt the course.

How can I contribute to the Open Course Library? Adopt the materials,
spread the word, and to share your own course materials online with a Creative Commons
open license. We have also created this 1-page handout to make it easy to share information about
the Open Course Library.